12-22-06
Death Hovers Over 2006
Stacy Keach and Edward Gero were two actors in a very large cast in Goodman’s production of Lear.
2006. Far too many good people died. The stories, the news, the shows of the last 12 months are colored by a peppering of death that nearly overwhelmed the year. Still, a necrology is a closer: skip to the end for a farewell to those we’ll miss and to the year.
But to start: the year’s biggest story was the long-awaited arrival of the new Performing Arts Venue (PAV) license for Chicago theatres. A result of teamwork between the city and the League of Chicago Theatres, the new license resolves decades-old problems and makes it easier for most city theatres to open legally and remain legal. Along with the PAV, the city inaugurated the Department of Business Affairs and Licensing, taking approval and enforcement out of the hands of the Department of Revenue, which long demonstrated its inconsistency in the approval process and its abuses of enforcement powers. The PAV story isn’t high glam, but it will have widespread and long-term impact on our industry.
The League also provided the year’s second biggest story: the demise of the Chicagoplays program book in July (although the name lives on in a cost-free sweetheart gift to Playbill). The four-year publishing venture left the League $400,000 in the hole, and possibly more (depending on how one reads the books). Rival program books Playbill and Chicago Footlights took up the slack. Playbill cherry picked the name houses, while Chicago Footlights picked up many more outlets and a larger additional press run. This story, too, has long-term industry impact as any hope of free program books was killed. Only the very largest institutional and commercial theatres remain on Playbill’s freebie list (Chicago Footlights doesn’t have such a list), the irony being that houses getting Playbill for free are the houses that can best afford to pay.
Story Number Three? What else, the League of Chicago Theatres. President/CEO Deanna Shoss announced her resignation, effective June 30, after less than a year in office. Her departure and the end of Chicagoplays appear to have been coincidental, as the problems with the publishing venture predated Shoss’ arrival at the League. As was her predecessor, Marj Halperin, Shoss was recruited out of city government. However, Shoss and the League weren’t a good fit. No one has spoken on-record about Shoss’ departure, but sources have told this reporter that Shoss’ management style was a political rather corporate model. Reportedly her first action was to request undated letters of resignation from all League employees, which she kept on file. League managing director Lyle Allen, an effective marketing specialist who rose through the ranks, was appointed interim executive director. As of press time, his appointment was expected to be made permanent.
Speaking of marketing, one of the year’s most interesting stories was the failure of Urinetown: The Musical at the Mercury Theater. Well-produced with a gifted and energetic company, it received nearly unanimous critical praise, real money reviews. And yet, Urinetown closed after six weeks of disappointing business. Private sources told me the producers, Blue Dog Entertainment, LLC, poured all their coin into the show and never figured enough for advertising and promotion. For the record, producer/director Tom Mullen said the show’s name remained a barrier and couldn’t draw suburban audiences. What’s apparent is that Blue Dog made precisely the same mistake the poorly-attended national tour of the show made when it stopped at the Shubert: they expected to sell to the standard big-ticket Broadway audience rather than trying to develop a younger, hipper, urban following for the show, which was the natural constituency for Urinetown in New York.
As always in any year, there were comings-and-goings of theatre companies and theatre venues. The historic 2851 N. Halsted, home to the St. Nicholas, Steppenwolf, Touchstone/Organic and ComedySportz troupes, fell to the wrecker’s ball. On the other hand, Victory Gardens fulfilled its $11 million dream by opening a handsome new space at the Biograph Theatre, and upgrading its former space, renamed the Victory Gardens Greenhouse. And Broadway in Chicago reopened a resplendent “new” old house, changing the Shubert to the LaSalle Bank Theatre at a cost of $14 million.
Also: Pyewacket and the Chicago Jewish Theatre gave up the ghost; Reverie went inactive; Serendipity and Terrapin merged; the Duncan YMCA Chernin Center for the Arts closed; Drury Lane Water Tower Place gave up producing after less than a year and became a rental house; the Three Arts Club went on the auction block, and with it plans for a Timeline residency; Soliloquy Bookstore disappointingly disappeared; and two shows ended multi-year runs, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change and Menopause: the Musical.
Providing suitable balance, the Chicago Theatre opened a 250-seat second space with a return of Shear Madness; Gorilla Tango Theatre opened a multi-space facility in Bucktown; the Annoyance Theatre returned to nightly business in an edgy Uptown locale; the Black Ensemble Theater announced purchase of Northside property and plans to build a two-theatre home; and a major new troupe, Chicago Children’s Theatre, arrived in well-heeled clothes.
In artistic news, Chicago Shakespeare Theater was one of just two American troupes to perform in Stratford, England as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s year-long Complete Works Festival. If any still doubted that Barbara Gaines and her CST had achieved world-class status, they now had proof.
But, for this writer, the artistic story of the year is the return of large-cast shows (Oct. 27 PerformInk). One expects large-cast productions of Shakespeare and musicals such as Goodman’s King Lear, Marriott’s All-Night Strut, CST’s Hamlet, Broadway in Chicago’s The Pirate Queen, even Porchlight Music Theatre’s A Wonderful Life. However, one doesn’t expect smaller and smallest Off-Loop venues to stage shows with casts of 12 or more, and yet that’s exactly what we’ve seen since September. Consider: The House’s Hatfield and McCoy, Straw Dog’s Marathon ‘33, Remy Bumppo’s The Best Man, Griffin Theatre’s Dead End, Northlight’s Inherit the Wind, Lookkinglass’ Argonautika, the Artistic Home’s The Petrified Forest and Speaking Ring’s The Crucible all sported casts of between 12 and 28! Theatres are doing large-cast shows because they can afford them, citing resurgent economic support after the downturn of 2002 and 2003. The large-cast shows are indicative of generally good economic health in our industry, and a sign that artistic thinking still values works of dramatic size and weight.
The necrology. In a year of devastating loss, we said goodbye (in alphabetical order) to: producer and philanthropist Hope A. Abelson; actor and novelist Sarajane Avidon; actor Marji Bank; playwright John Belluso; actor Wayne Brown; actor Lucy Pacquet Gabbard; actor Gene Janson (who gave us a real actor’s farewell); studio owner Kirk Johnson, Sr.; director and teacher Ralph Lane; Congo Square guest director Mike Malone; Actors’ Equity executive director Patrick Quinn; Light Opera Works board president Mary B. Rouleau; Athenaeum Theatre producer and manager Fred Solari; playwright Wendy Wasserstein; actor Edward T. Westfall; actor Jeffrey Woolley; and director Jim Zulevic.
Beware the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2005, sponsored by Kansas Republican Senator Sam Brownback, and signed into law by George Bush last June 15.
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The Lost Art of Listening: Can You Hear Me?
Enhancing the Theatre Experience
Death Hovers Over 2006